Let’s recall the current Miss America

Apparently it wasn’t too cold on stage!!

 

The current Miss AMERICA, Molly Hagan recently told newspapers that she’s probably going to decline on attending the inauguration of the President of the United States of AMERICA because it will be too cold.   The really amazing thing here is that she’s Miss New York, you know that tropical zone where in winter it is so much warmer than it is in Washington, DC.  Oh wait, that’s right, no it’s not!!!!  The temperatures are expected to be cold, in the 30’s a pretty typical temperature for New York this time of year.

What I want to know is where are all of my conservative friends on this issue?  Why isn’t Fox News screaming from the high heavens about Miss AMERICA not willing to attend the inauguration because it will be cold out?  I wonder, were this a Republican administration would they all be so quiet or would she be branded a liberal socialist?  No matter what your political persuasion, how is this anything but insulting and quite frankly un-American.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s a beauty queen, few of the former Miss Americas have been all that impressive, but come on, your title is Miss America, what else don’t we know about her, does Miss New York not like cheesecake, bagels, pizza?  Seriously, if she doesn’t like pizza her and I are going to have a serious problem.

Ok, so before one of you knuckle-heads chimes in with, but she grew up in Alabama let me warn you against that argument.  You see we might draw another conclusion about her reasons should we start exploring her Alabama roots, but then again, suggesting she might be racist, WOULD actually bring out the ire of all of my conservative friends and FOX News would be all over that idea.

Miss AMERICA, go to the damn inauguration and post a picture of you eating a slice!

An open letter to Lance Armstrong

 

Hello Lance,

I know that’s informal but like most athletes and celebrities it feels like at some level I know you.  You see you have provided me with some of the most compelling sporting moments I’ve ever seen, thank you for that.  I still consider you to be the greatest cyclist of my generation, unfortunately you are no longer the most respected cyclist of my generation.  I will tell you, “the look” was one of the most magnificent moments in sports, almost to the level of the 1984 US Olympic Hockey victory over the Soviet Union.

However, now that it is confirmed I have to wonder, was Jan Ulrich doping as well?  If he was, then that moment stands as pure now as it was then, if he wasn’t, well then I’m left with the same feeling I have now that the Olympics is nothing but a bunch of overpaid professionals.  So you see it both does and doesn’t matter that everyone else was cheating.  Let me be clear, completing the Tour de France is a damn near super human feat, making the podium perhaps the pinnacle of achievement in sport.  That truly doesn’t change even if all three men on the podium doped, like Barry Bonds in baseball, doping won’t help you hit the ball.  In cycling, doping doesn’t give you the will, the desire, the near insane determination you need to have to be a top rider in the Tour.

I greatly respect what you have done with your fame, after surviving cancer you found a way to use your fame to help cancer patients.  I’ve never worn a Livestrong bracelet, mostly because I don’t wear silly bracelets, but I have donated money and supported Livestrong events.  I do not regret that at all, I wasn’t supporting you, but the people your organization helps.  Regardless of the crap you are about to take, the awful things you will be called, and the suspicion that will be thrown on your organization, you should be proud of the good you did there.

Lance, the problem is you’ve become typical.  Unfortunately all of the good you have done as an athlete, as a cancer survivor will now get lost in a fog of just another celebrity, just another athlete, just another cheater, just another liar.  And truly Fuck You, for making the French right, for giving them the moral high ground, they were obnoxious enough before you came clean to all of us.

Finally, you don’t owe me or anyone else anything, it’s your life.  You didn’t ride the Tour de France for me, I’m just a recreational cyclist who enjoys watching the sport.  However, you owe those closest to you a huge apology and so much more, I can’t imagine how you explain this to your children, but again that is your issue, your life.  So in many ways this is farewell Lance, I actually imagine to a degree coming clean reduces the pressure on you.  Good luck explaining and repairing the relationships with those closest to you, at this point all I can really say is I wish it hadn’t been so.  I really wish you had been the person we all at one time thought you were, be well, live strong.

Snow White and the Huntsman

One of the best measures of the enjoyability of a movie is how quickly the time goes by, two-hours disappeared in the blink of an eye.  Not once did I catch myself not engrossed in what was happening on-screen.  The mark of a good movie is the quality of the story, direction and level of detail.  Snow White scores on this front as well, a familiar tale with some minor twists enough to make it interesting but not so much as to offend the spirit of the original.  The direction was excellent and made especially good use of the beauty of the talent, long lingering looks of Kristen Stewart and especially Charlize Theron who may be the most beautiful woman alive.  But what caught my attention were the little details, one example, Snow White has been dirty, very dirty and her hand is silhouetted against a white background, in most films the nails would be immaculate, but here they are appropriately dirty, that attention to detail is important in good film-making.

The use of digital effects in this film is simply spectacular but not overplayed and there is just enough action, horror, beauty and fantasy to make this a damn near perfect fairytale and a great summer movie.

About the one controversy around this film, the use of full-sized actors to pay dwarves and then digitally shrunk.  I understand, the opportunity to get an actor like Bob Hoskins is wonderful, but damn it, I’m a fan of little people and I think the film missed the mark on this one.  You need look no further than the work on Game of Thrones by Peter Dinklage to understand that real dwarf actors would have been the way to go.

I want to fight William Shatner

I want to fight William Shatner

“I want to fight William Shatner” is one of my favorite lines from the movie Fight Club and I think shows how unbelievably iconic William Shatner has become in our culture.  Some of my first television memories are of sitting on the couch in my family’s living room watching Star Trek.  Perhaps for that reason, or because of his mannerisms William Shatner has always reminded me of my father.  Throughout my life William Shatner has been a fixture in my television life, first as Captain Kirk, then as I became fascinated with the Twilight Zone, he appeared in one of my absolute favorite episodes, Nightmare at 20,000 feet.  Once I was in high school Shatner spent time occasionally obstructing the view of Heather Locklear on TJ Hooker.  He re-emerged as the Star Trek franchise took off through movies and new series and of course in guest appearances on damn near everything on television.  He showed up in one of his funniest roles as the Big Giant Head on Third Rock from the Sun.  He also earned critical acclaim for roles on The Practice and Boston Legal.

Not only an actor, William Shatner also took on the music industry and has produced some of the most unforgettable renditions of classic tunes including Mr. Tambourine Man or his spoken word version of Rocket Man.

As he’s gotten older Shatner has become incredibly interesting to me and has definitely become someone I’d like to sit down and have a beer with sometime.  He has a farm in Kentucky and raises horses and seems to have reached a really calm and comfortable place in his life.  One of the most amazing things to me is the fact that he’s 81 years old and is still actively working.

The most amazing work Shatner has ever done in my opinion is his interview show, Shatner’s Raw Nerve.  I wrote a piece on the Raw Nerve a while back and if you get the opportunity to see it, check it out it’s really an amazing show, hell he made Tony Danza interesting.

So yes, if I could fight any celebrity, I would fight William Shatner or maybe we’d just get a beer and chat.

The Amazing Ashley Judd

The Amazing Ashley Judd

I met Ashley Judd in Lexington over 20 years ago, she was an undergrad at UK and I was a graduate student at Eastern Kentucky University.  Of course at the time she wasn’t the actress Ashley Judd, she was just this really beautiful and interesting girl named Ashley.  We talked briefly, I no longer even remember the topic but remember being surprised and impressed and frankly would have probably even forgot the conversation ever happened were it not for the fact that I had some nerdy friends in law school.  You see we would convene every Saturday night at my apartment to watch Star Trek the Next Generation and one night there was an actress in an episode, a guest star that when I saw her I immediately said, “I know her.”  My friends of course laughed at me and told me I was nuts and it took some time for me to remember the meeting and I told them I was pretty sure I knew her from Kentucky.  These for those of you who are a bit younger, were the infant days of the internet, there was no quick Google search to find anything out. 

I taped, yes taped, each episode and so I paused the tape during the credits and found out her name, Ashley Judd.  It didn’t take long, she did another appearance on Star Trek, within a couple of years she’d done Ruby in Paradise and given the fame her sister and mother already possessed, Ashley soon become a solid fixture in American pop culture.  And I will admit, solidified my distant crush on her, she’s absolutely one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood and much more than her physical beauty, she’s always exuded intelligence, confidence and strength.  What can I say I’ve always been a sucker for strong, confident, beautiful women and Ashley is certainly all of that and more.

I would get to meet her briefly again around the year 2000, I was a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and Ashley is a diehard UK Basketball fan.  Tennessee was finally a competitive team and given Ashley’s connections to both UK and Tennessee she occasionally attended UK/UTK games in Knoxville.  At one game I noticed people were going down to the edge of the floor and asking for autographs at game breaks.  She was sitting on the floor but was being very gracious and signing away for fans.  I walked over and came down at one of the breaks and she turned to sign, looked a bit confused, I smiled and said,” just wanted to say hi.”  She laughed, said, “hello” and then the game started and I went back to my seat.  What struck me in that brief encounter, was that she was generally kind to me and other fans who were approaching her, she seemed appreciative of the attention and most importantly she seemed genuine, a rarity amongst Hollywood stars.

She has obviously become a massive international start, has married a famous Indy Car racing star and what a lot of folks may not know is how much she works for social justice issues.  Her work focuses on women’s issues and she has done a lot of work on behalf of Appalachia as well.  She remains a fixture in Hollywood and now even on the small screen with her new TV series Missing.  So a little tribute to one of the most interesting women in Hollywood, my second piece, I wrote about Tilda Swinton in my first piece and like Tilda, Ashley is someone I would love to sit down with and have a drink sometime and talk about life.  So Ashley, take this as an open invitation, heck I’d even be willing to meet you and Tilda together in say Inverness for dinner.

One last thing, although there are tons of images of Ashley by far my favorite is the one she did for the UK Club Hockey Teams’ poster and here it is.

 

A question about Kate Upton

So I’m starting to wonder if it’s just me or is Kate Upton waaaay hotter in the Carl’s Jr burger commercial

 

than she is on the cover of Sports Illustrated?

Gary Oldman one of the best actors of our time?

Gary Oldman one of the best actors of our time?

Recently the Oscar nominations list came out and Gary Oldman was nominated for best actor, this, came as no surprise, the surprise was that it was his first nomination.  He has been nominated for his role as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Gary Oldman is one of those actors whose name may not bring an immediate recognition but is someone whose work you absolutely know.  Here’s a picture of him in one of his most iconic roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula.  Most recently he has been playing Commissioner Gordon in the latest Batman series, The Dark Knight.

 

Oldman has always fascinated me, it seemed during the 1990’s that he was the bad guy in every film worth seeing.  He was iconic as Dracula, Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films, Mason Verger in Hannibal, and one of the most over the top wild-ass bad guys in The 5^th Element.  I have great admiration for his acting talent and much like the great Michael Caine, as much of a star as he is; he still seems to have retained an aura of being an ordinary guy.  He’s one of those people I would love to have a beer with sometime.

This past weekend Oldman was a guest for one of the games, not my job, on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and as always they do a quick minute or two with the star and it’s usually fairly interesting, but the back and forth with Goldman was unbelievable funny, give it a listen and if by some miracle he reads this, good luck Mr. Oldman, I hope you bring home the Oscar.  Below is a link to where you can find the clip, it’s definitely worth the time, enjoy.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/04/146320715/actor-gary-oldman-plays-not-my-job

Fun Friday: Random Friday Happiness

Fun Friday:  Random Friday Happiness

 

Burningman ticket lottery video – Hitler finds out about the lottery

Happiness Countdown

A little Daily Show snarkiness

 

From Mr. Sulu’s Facebook page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Goddess Tilda Swinton

The Goddess Tilda Swinton

Ok, today I want to talk about one of the most amazing women in the film industry, Tilda Swinton.  What makes her so special?  To me there are several things, her acting ability, her spectacular beauty and the fact that she is highly intelligent and utterly unconventional.  The former fashion model is universally considered a spectacular actress who has won an Oscar (Michael Clayton) and been nominated for a Golden Globe award and has won numerous film festival awards.

Add to this fact that she is unbelievably beautiful, (although I do know one young lately who vehemently disagrees with me), she is often called androgynous, but much like Annie Lennox in her orange crew cut hair days, once you apply the bald test, you’ll realize how spectacular she is, and here are a couple of images so you can judge for yourself:

 

 

On top of all of this Tilda is one of those women who never had to do a damn thing.  She was born to old school Scottish family and can trace her lineage back some obnoxious number of generations.  She attended school with Princess Diana, she’s tall and beautiful and could have easily lived a life of relative leisure, married some insanely rich man and coasted. 

But far from that, she has carved a very unique path through life.  As a model and actress of some renown she of course lives in London, LA or New York, no she does not.  She lives in a little town east of Inverness, yes the home of Loch Ness, in Scotland.  There have been more than interesting tabloid discussions of the relationships she has with her partner and the father of her children.  She isn’t constantly in the press, she doesn’t prance around in attempts to get coverage and into the headlines and she doesn’t take on big commercial roles just to make money.  If you’ve ever watched her do an interview you will see immediately what I mean by her individuality.  For those of you who haven’t seen her do an interview the link below is to the one she did with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show this week.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-26-2012/tilda-swinton

Tilda Swinton is one of the few big stars in the film industry who I would love to sit down with and have a beer, I would expect nothing less than a revealing and fantastic conversation, and as soon she extends me the invite I’ll be on my way.  Finally, to illustrate her unique perspective here are few quotes from her from IMDB:

The other day, I was going through the airport security and I was searched by a male security guard. I’m very often referred to as “Sir” in elevators and such. I think it has to do with being this tall and not wearing much lipstick. I think people just can’t imagine I’d be a woman if I look like this.

True, there is all sorts of religious extremism all over the place, but the reason for this partly has to do with the fascist attitudes and language of absolutism coming from Washington. It’s challenging for people outside of America that Bush was re-elected. It means we’re all going to have to work a lot harder to understand what so many more Americans than we thought really want. It’s an identity shift in our minds about America and maybe for many Americans as well.

I’m not one of those performers who says the theatre is my great love. It really isn’t. I’m not really interested in the theatre at all to be honest. I don’t go to it. I find it really boring.

I don’t think I’m courageous. One man’s courage is another man’s comfort zone. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) explored a taboo subject: the idea of a less than perfect mother. I knew that, when an audience watched the film, there would be a gag reflex at some point. But I was fascinated by the subject – it scared me, and that interested me.

Are skinny women sexy? For women a call to arms!

Are skinny women sexy? For women a call to arms!

Below are two images, one is of Ciara, Miss November from Playboy and one is of a fashion model from a women’s magazine selling bikinis, the suit is named the Catwalk Killer.  Can you guess which is which?

Lately on social media there has been a number of posts flying around questioning whether or not thin women are sexy?  The posts are almost always from women and responded to by other women that skinny women are disgusting, that being that thin is not sexy what so ever.  People are fond of comparing Marilyn Monroe with Lindsay Lohan or using some of the plastic surgery barbies from reality TV.

Here’s my suggestion instead of using addicts, and nut jobs to compare with Marilyn, let’s use Jessica Alba, pictured with Marilyn below:

I will now commit social suicide with most of the women in America and tell you, I think all 4 of these women are attractive.  I prefer Ciara and Jessica, quite frankly I think the swimsuit model is at least as attractive as Marilyn Monroe.  The simple fact is some people find thin women attractive and I’m one of them.  Don’t get me wrong, I never thought Kate Moss when she was heroin addict thin was even remotely attractive, I’ve never seen a picture of an anorexic woman who I thought was remotely attractive and I think 99% of men would agree with me. 

However the reason I used the first two pictures, is to put the blame for this cult of thinness squarely on the head of the group it belongs on, women.  Look at the Ciara, Miss November from Playboy, she’s the blonde in the first set of pictures, she’s spectacular.  She is absolutely thinner than the Playboy models you saw in the 60′s or the 70′s but I don’t think she looks remotely unhealthy.  I used an image from Playboy, as the images created for that magazine are picked to suit the tastes of men in our society and you don’t see women in Playboy that look like the fashion model wearing the Catwalk Killer.

The audience for the fashion magazine, and all fashion magazine’s for that matter is women.  The women that show up in fashion magazines are incredibly thin, I think the model in the swimsuit is beautiful, but she could definitely use a sandwich or two.  The problem is, if she eats those sandwiches and puts on a couple of pounds she risks losing modelling gigs, which is how she pays her bills.   If you don’t know anything about the fashion industry I really recommend a fascinating documentary done by a former model, Sara Ziff entitled Picture Me.  She shows both the sparkling and dark sides of the industry and talks about the issues with body image that accompany this profession she shot the film over the first few years she spent in the industry.

My question tonight is, who subsidizes this industry, who pays money to buy those magazines, who buys the clothes sold by hanging them on stick thin models?  Women do, there are women designers, women buyers, women editors of fashion magazines selling to women consumers and readers, so who is to blame?  Women constantly condemn this cult of thinness which thinly veils that they believe somehow men are to blame because this is what we want from women, this is NOT TRUE!  There are men like me who prefer thin women but there are plenty of men who like women with a little more, and even a lot more meat on their bones. 

I will give my female friends who do these posts on social media the benefit of the doubt.  I’ll assume they are posting as a call to arms to fellow women to change the way women are idealized by other women.  To help younger women understand that they don’t have to be horribly thin to look good in clothes, to be models or to be found attractive by men.  I’ll go as far as to assume what my female friends are suggesting by these posts are that women boycott magazines and fashion lines that use ultra-thin models.  Women that’s all it would take, vote with your credit cards, buy only magazines that use size 6 or higher models, only buy clothing lines that use size 6 or higher models.  Do that, and the fashion magazines and the designers will find ways to make clothes that work with these body types and sizes. 

Ladies, you have the power, now wield it, and get what you say you want.